How to Create A Free Video Using Animoto

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I wrote about the free online video service Animoto that enables you to create high quality video slideshows. Animoto is great for the beginner who wants to try their hand at making videos without having any specialist knowledge. Well I have set up a new YouTube Channel and have a two part tutorial that you can follow below.

“How to Create An Animoto Video”.

Create film quality videos for free and grab your instant $5.00 coupon for full length videos at Animoto. No technical experience required to produce awesome video shorts, slideshows and full length videos.

Is WordPress 2.6.1 Worth It?

What’s all the fuss about WordPress 2.6.1?

After staying with WordPress 2.3.3 for as long as possible I finally made a pressing decision to update my family of blogs to the WordPress 2.6.1.

The official announcement for the latest stable release currently 2.6.1 does not have any priority security updates. It is one of the usual maintenance updates to fix known bugs so those of you are using version 2.6 there is no immediate need to upgrade.

As usual I dread the possibility of my blog template breaking and showing errors when I attempt to install the latest version of WordPress. Here are some of my tips for a safer upgrade experience.

1. If possible test on a server that is not in use

2. Revert back to one of the “default” themes such as Kubrick or Classic whilst uploading files.

3. Find a reliable and trustworthy script installer to perform the work on your behalf.

4. Use the WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin for easy upgrade without having to download files.

If all else fails and you discover errors in your template you can always revert back to one of the default themes until you an find a solution to the problem.

Thankfully all of my plugins appear to be compatible with WordPress 2.6.1 which is a welcome relief and one of the major reasons why I did not hurry to install previous versions as they became available.

I do really like the “one click” automatic plugin update. What a breath of fresh air!

Now I can just click and the update will run on it’s own deactivates the plugin and uploads the new files, then reactivates itself on autopilot. Sweet!

Now to look into the WordPress Automatic Upgrade Plugin. Though I’m not entirely convinced that this won’t have some teething problems. If anyone has experience with this plugin I would love to hear from you.

Related Articles:

Our Top WordPress Plugins

Warning WordPress Update Left Me Headless

Are You Ready For WordPress 2.5?

Holy Crap My Blog Is Screwed!

Website Traffic Edition Of The Newsletter

It’s been a while since he last edition of the Miriadz Cyber Times Newsletter was published. However today’s issue is ready to read online.

The main subject today is “Website Traffic”!

Click here to check out the newsletter.

Enjoy!

Don’t Call Me Dimdim!

Don’t Call Me Dimdim…

Following on from my post on some of the Internet’s popular web based conference rooms. I have another “Meeting Room” resource, Dimdim. Don’t ask me why or how they came up with that name but it does the job.
Currently you can host a 20 people meeting for free. For a larger number of attendees you can upgrade.
Share your Desktop, Power Point presentations, PDF files and more.

“Dimdim Features

Dimdim is easy, affordable and open web collaboration software with a robust set of powerful features that just keeps getting better. Dimdim scales to thousands of meeting attendees, provides up to world class availability and comes in multiple hosted and onsite configurations including downloadable open source and a free hosted version. Dimdim does not require attendees to install any software and is the easiest way to share documents and desktops, chat, talk and view others online.”

Dimdim Advantages

Dimdim Disadvantages

So don’t be fooled by the odd name I’ve used Dimdim and it rocks!

Beside it uses Flash which most people already have installed on their computers and takes up much less bandwidth and CPU speed like than other web based meeting rooms.

Overall Dimdim is a pleasure to work with. Unlike my favorite webinar software HotConference attendees do not have to install software to join scheduled meetings and to gather instant feedback from polls is two features that will greatly enhance Dimdim and make it a more viable choice for online webinar presentations.

Other meeting room software mentioned require downloading large software files which is something I would prefer to steer away from. Especially as many Windows Vista users experienced problems installing HotConference. I found out that they need to take certain steps to right click and select “Run as administrator” to complete installation.

I had reports from attendees that the software didn’t work and of course they missed out on my meeting. Yikes!

Could This Be The Death of Ebay?

Oh boy has the rules changed on eBay over the past few months or so we have seen change in management and many unfavorable changes in fee structure and payments policies.

Digital Products on eBay

For instance no more digital products can be sold on auction listing. You can get around this by offering your products on CD as long as you can burn them onto CD and ship them to your customer. This has some advantages because you are less likely to receive refund requests that was a known problems with the sale of downloadable goods. People would order then request a refund once they downloaded your ebooks and software. :shock:

The downside is you need to add several products to give value to the CD product and have to charge for shipping costs and spend some time packing the goods for posting.

Before selling digital goods was a simple process. Just set up the auction and send the download link via email after receving confirmation of payment.

Now the only place you can sell digital products is via eBay Classifieds. It costs just under $10 for a month so it is inexpensive to use.

Another change I recently saw is that ‘Buyer’ can no longer receive negative feedback from Sellers!

As quoted when I logged into my eBay account I read the pop up notice:

“Important changes to Feedback

Buyers, you can no longer receive negative or neutral Feedback from sellers.

You should leave honest and accurate Feedback without the fear of negative or neutral ratings.”

Sellers must be fuming. The logic behind this new policy change is to allow the Buyer to express their experience with eBay Sellers without the fear of bad feedback from the Seller. The question is will this new move work in favor of the Buyer or create tension?

Credit Card Payments

There is also discussion that eBay want to make everyone use just PayPal as the only payment processor. Other payment processors like Google Checkout are not permitted to be used for payment choices.

Considering some people do not have a PayPal account either because they have no intention of signing up or have to bear several issues preventing them from withdrawing money from their account depending on their country of residence.

This would definitely alienate a large sector of people. The only options available to them would be mailed checks or bank wires which incur extra bank charges to process.

What is the point of all of these radical proposals?

I’m glad I’m just a buyer and not a seller because this would give me major headaches even though I can readily accept and use PayPal.

A better way to attract more people to using PayPal is to allow for special promotions like discount vouches for shoppers paying via PayPal. Everyone loves to snap up a bargain when available and what better way to encourage regular spending sprees knowing that you’ll get a reduction at the checkout and save even more money!

The fee structure has gone up too much in my opinion. There was no prior concern for losing revenue publicly so why they decided to raise the fee schedule is beyond me.

eBay have been on occassion waived the “insertion fees” or “free gallery picture” on selected days . However you are only given a few days notice to take advantage of these offers so you have to be a regular seller or set up an auction swiftly to take advantage of the offer.

Shipping Charges

I have noticed the steady rise in Sellers jacking up the shipping costs mainly because postal rate are going up ridiculous levels and of course Sellers do not pay fees on shipping.

For instance an item I was interested in was priced at £1.99 Buy It Now but the shipping was £10.99.

How crazy can you get?

It’s bad enough that shipping costs in the UK are rising so much that I just wouldn’t bother to purchase items if the postage cost are unreasonably high. I’d rather take a trip to the high street to get the item myself.

Lots of loopholes to the advantage of the seller. Consider this if there was a problem with your order would you be satisfied with a £1.99 refund when you’ve paid five times as much in shipping costs?

Seller Tips

eBay is looking less attractive than in earlier years. I would definitely look to other online auction sites and most importantly of all get your eBay customers to shop direct from your own website where you can save on fees and have more control over how you conduct your business and follow up with customers.

Don’t get me wrong I love shopping on eBay as it has saved me a personal fortune on the latest game consoles and accessories for my two growing boys. :wink:

I must admit I have a recent sway towards Power Sellers because they give me a sense that they have done business for a substantial time and I should have a hassle free shopping experience and the best customer care. Especially if I’m going to purchase more expensive items. Many high street retailers have eBay shops so they can reach the online shopper too and often provide better deals than they could in their brick and mortar business.

With all that said eBay is the most well known of all online auction sites so naturally people go there to find a bargain or popular items that are out of stock in the local high street. So I’m not suggesting that sales will plummet in fact business appears to be booming according to Alexa traffic stats show a slight fluctuation in traffic but it is still very highly visited sites on the Internet. I still shop at eBay but I do get put off when I come across inflated shipping charges and tend to stay away from sellers who don’t have a near perfect feedback rating. The closer to 100% rating the more likely I am to buy from them.

If you’re a seller how do you feel about the changes?

Recommended Reading:

eBay To Migrate Away From Commission Junction

Are You Using Ebay’s Classified Ads Site?

How To Make A Living From Online Auctions and Ebay From The Experts

Find Steady Income Through ASD Cash Generator

Biggest Internet Marketing Giveaway Ever From Reed Floren

I teamed up with Reed Floren who has called in some favors from a whole bunch of top online marketers and convinced them all to give you TONS of Products at no cost to you.

Reed’s massive giveaway launches today, Friday May 16th 2008 @ 09:00 AM CDT / 2:00PM UK GMT. Reed Floren’s Internet Marketing [IM] Giveaway JV.
This is going to be one of BIGGEST JV events to date so set your alarm clocks for the time of the OFFICIAL LAUNCH.

You’ll be able to access:

-tons of ebooks
-tons of scripts
-tons of everything you’ve ever wanted

The total value of these super freebie amount to more than thousands of dollars but they are being given away for FREE to YOU!

At 09:00 AM CDT / 2:00PM UK GMT, go to: The IM Giveaway

Check your time zones and don’t miss out Reed Floren’s special giveaway event will only be open for the next seven days ONLY.

Get FULL access at 09:00AM CDT!
The IM Giveaway

Good luck,

Nancy Redford

Create Film Quality Online Videos With Animoto

Make a dynamic slideshow and embed your images in an Animoto video. Your images and music will never be the same again. A team of filmmakers and producers have formed a partnership to provide a unique service for creating online video with film quality finish.

So What Can You Do With Animoto?

With Animoto you can produce stunning slideshows similar to services other free applications like Slide and RockYou used on popular on social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. Animoto launched a Facebook application at SXSW in anticipation that the service will see further growth. Animoto lets you grab photos from free photo sharing sites such as Flickr, Picassa, Smugmug, Facebook, Photobucket, or from your own personal images stored on your computer.

Plus there are lots of music tracks to choose from to add to your videos with the option to purchase the full tracks from the artists. So if you are an artist you can submit your music and gain more exposure and sales. Featured tracks or scan through several musical genre’s from Indie Rock, Hip Hop, Classical, Jazz and more.

You can post an Animoto widget directly to your MySpace profile in the section you choose About Me, Films or other places on your pages. At first I thought it’s would be an excellent way to get my completed 30 second short on MySpace quickly without having to copy and past code into my profile manually. However after I sent the video to MySpace I went to check on its progress with great anticipation but my video could not be seen. The only visible code was a thin black banner link with the Animoto link back to their main site. So I had to manually remove the code easier just to select “Post/Embed” online and select MySpace from there to get the code to paste carefully into your MySpace profile. Also if you want to embed your Animoto video onto web pages select “Other Sites” to get the embed code.

In fact the best way to embed an Animoto video without the links back to the website as can be viewed on TechCrunch Music Video Slide Show. At the end “Make new video” and “What is this?” Even the new style YouTube videos can be a pain when your video shrinks into the background to reveal a row of other videos. This can be a killer for marketing affiliate programs as your competitors videos may appear after your own. :roll:

I’m sure I’m not the only one who hates this new layout at YouTube.

Advantages & Disadvantages of The Free Version and Premium Service

The limitations on free 30 second Animoto Short are you cannot download your video but you can upgrade and edit your video at a later date so it is versatile in that respects.

Only full-length videos can be downloaded, but you can upgrade this video by doing an “Editing Remix” and changing the type on the “Finalize” page. No two videos are ever the same even after completing your video you can go back and remix it to create a new version with little effort.

You can use the 30 second shorts as an intro or slideshow but to get the full benefits of the service the real value is in the long feature film length video. YOU CAN MAKE A FILM QUALITY VIDEO without having any special equipment so it does have a huge advantage over services like OneTrumedia. You still have an Animoto logo feature at the very end of your video when uploaded to YouTube but it isn’t intrusive at all. If this bothers you just upgrade and download your introduction pieces into your favorite video editing software like the free Windows Movie Maker so you can add more content to your video and make it look more professional.

For just $3.00 or equivalent of just and just $30 per year with free hosting you just can’t beat the service for incredible value. I plan to use it to create professional looking introduction to my future video tutorials.

How To Get The Premium Film Length Service For Free

Once you are a user of Animoto you can give your friends a $5 discount voucher and get 3 months free premium access for yourself. Why continue struggling with producing videos and compromising with quality when you can get it all for a measly sum of $3.00?

The simplicity of the service with the auto generated animations so you DO NOT have to configure this yourself. Even a child can do it! See a complete demo here: Animoto-Make Impressive Slide Shows/Intros _Easy To Use_

This video was created by a brilliant young genius is a member of the YouTube Partner Program status due to thousands of video views he generates from his Channel. This gives him a share of the ad revenue such as Google Adsense on his video pages. Incidentally I found this video after my initial with Animoto so I could of saved myself some valuable time. LOL

Watch Submit Your Videos To Multiple Websites Using TubeMogul at YouTube


“Animoto Productions is a bunch of techies and film/tv producers who decided to lock themselves in a room together and nerd out.

Their first release is Animoto, a web application that automatically generates professionally produced videos using their own patent-pending technology and high-end motion design. Each video is a fully customized orchestration of user-selected images and music. Produced on a widescreen format, Animoto videos have the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer.

The heart of Animoto is its newly developed Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology that thinks like an actual director and editor. It analyzes and combines user-selected images and music with the same sophisticated post-production skills & techniques that are used in television and film…”

–Animoto

To read more about Animoto and get $5.00 off using this code => fvngzoat. Visit Animoto to test run a free demo today. Once you are a user of Animoto you can give your friends a $5 discount voucher and get 3 months free premium access to make film length videos for yourself.

Even more reasons to get into creating online videos regardless if you want to feature yourself in the video or not.

Amazon Associate Engine Critical Update

Amazon Associate Engine

Further to my note regarding the closing down of Amazon’s ECS3. David Cusimano has released the latest update to the script here. It only requires you to upload one file which is called ae.pl to your current installation. This will replace the old file and will enable your
current Amazon datafeed run store to function normally with Amazon ECS4.

Phew!

That’s a sigh of relief as I have many websites with variations of the Amazon Associate
Engine script.

I’ll be performing all upgrades as soon as this post is published. I also use the Calendars
script which has been removed from Kowabunga.com and is now a 1-tier program at Commission Junction and Performics.

There is also an annual license fee of jut $24.95 if you want to continue using the
“DySE::Calendars” script from Cusimano.

There are a few other updates to datafeed generated scripts for affiliate programs so check the site and sign up for more information and to receive the latest updates by email.

Related Articles:

How To Set Up Your Amazon Affiliate Video Widget

Have You Set Up Your Amazon aStore Yet?

Free sign up for Amazon Associates Program

Help Raise Funds For Petey’s Power Sale

Petey’s Power Sale

“100% of the proceeds will go to Petey and the purchase of a wheelchair accessible van”.

I received this link to an amazing fundraising event for a young boy who is in dire need of a wheelchair accessible van to give him and his family more freedom and a safe and convenient way to get around.

You’ll be touched at how many Internet marketers have stepped up and donated some top quality products you can actually use for your business.

There is a video on the sales page that will explain everything about Petey’s real life story and all of the products on offer. The presenter of the video is Jason Marshall who was a contestant on Joel Comm’s ‘The Next Internet Millionaire’. Jason is the best friend and full time aid for Petey, who suffers from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophyphy.

A few of the contributors committed to helping Petey include:

1. You can purchase the products

2. You can make a donation

3. You can also purchase the product and make a separate donation too. Remember that your donation is tax deductible!

4. Help spread the word by sharing this story and link to the sale with your mailing list, blog and social networking sites like Facebook and others.

After your purchase you’ll be able to download your products and will also receive helpful tips of how to put them into practice PLUS a special 4 part Teleseminar aptly named ‘Petey’s Powernars’ which will proceed after the special Petey Power Sale. Just watch the video to get the full scoop.

 

P.S.
Petey will be 13 years old on April 18th so it would be fantastic for him to go to his most treasured seafood restaurant in his new wheelchair accessible van. ‘Petey’s Power Pack’ is a truly a super deal that you WILL NOT FIND anywhere else so what are you waiting for, buy, donate and spread the word!

Visit the site now => http://petey.heartheirstories.com

Virtual Smart Agent and The Rise of Chat Software

If you viewed some sales pages lately you may have come across a virtual agent window which pops up ONLY if you click away from the sales page. I must admit the first time I came across one of these ‘Virtual Agents’ I assumed it was a LIVE AGENT that I could have a text chat with. However it soon became apparent that the whole chat conversation was scripted after I entered random questions and gibberish. Now that could confuse and annoy people and defeat the whole purpose of good customer relations.

So What is a ‘Virtual Agent”?

Simply put a virtual agent is an automated chat solution for your web site.

I don’t have any personal qualms on the service but I do believe the fatal flaw is that
visitors expect to know whether they are interacting with a REAL PERSON and can easily istake the automated software to be a live customer service representative.

You could argue that UpSell is another innovative business idea from Mike Filesaime as it has proven to increase conversion rates for clients. Upsell is aimed at closing sales where people are about to click away from the sales page without making a purchase and can save lost sales by offering a time sensitive discount. It must be working well for some Internet marketers because closing lost sales is a bonus to their business. The service is completely free of monthly charges or upfront fees. All that is required is that you need to have an existing sales revenue of at least 50 sales per month to be eligible for the service. Clients agree to provide UpSell with commissions on each sale made so there are no up front costs.

Most people are familiar with regular Chat Support where a LIVE AGENT conducts a text based messaging system in real time so that you can ask questions and get immediate feedback and response. Examples can be found Volusion.com where you can test run the software for free using the trial before deciding whether to upgrade.

Virtual Smart Agent

A new launch from David Guindon aptly name ‘Virtual Smart Assistant’ at first appears to be similar to Mike Filesaime’s UpSell service but the visitor is fully aware that the Virtual Assistant is not a live agent so there are no surprises. You purchase the software to install on your web site and do not have any monthly commissions or monthly fees whatsoever and no sales minimums. So from a cost perspective this option could be right for you.

Advantages of Virtual Agents

Disadvantages of Virtual Agents

If I had to choose I would go for live chat assistance because customer service is a key area of business that cannot be compromised. People want to interact with people first and foremost. The only way to find out if a virtual chat agent would be of benefit to you and your business is to test out the software and split test your results. Remember that the primary objective of a virtual assistant is to close sales or set it up to build your opt-in list. It should not be used as a substitute for your customer service enquiries.

I do like the concept but would not be tempted to use it for my own needs. There could be good use for it on large commercial web site’s to get people to take up a trial offers, especially if the trial is free.

It would be interesting to get feedback from people who are currently using virtual chat agents on their web site. Are you using a virtual agent on your site?

If you want to share your own experience as a customer or webmaster please feel free to add your coments. You may also want to read what Rosalind Gardner wrote about on the subject of virtual agents.

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